Ministerial Foreword

Creating a Fairer Scotland is one of our top priorities as a
Government. Our Fairer Scotland Action Plan, which was published on
5 October, sets out 50 actions that we will take to help us achieve
that vision. Bringing forward a Child Poverty Bill for Scotland is
one of those actions.

We know that tackling the deep-seated inequalities and poverty
in our society is challenging - we only have to look at the figures
to see that. In Scotland in 2014-15, poverty affected 940,000
people, after housing costs. That figure includes 220,000 children.
It is simply wrong that more than
one in five of our children are living in
poverty.

That's why we profoundly disagreed with the
UK Government's decision
to repeal the income targets that were set out in the
UK-wide Child Poverty Act
2010. There is widespread agreement that, more than anything else,
poverty is about income. I will therefore bring forward a Child
Poverty Bill for Scotland in this Parliamentary year. Over the
summer we consulted on the Bill, seeking views on proposals to
enshrine in legislation our clear ambition to eradicate child
poverty, underpinned by statutory income-based targets, a robust
Delivery Plan and annual reporting. Our new Bill will establish
Scotland as the only part of the
UK with statutory income
targets on child poverty.

This report sets out the most recent statistics on child
poverty, and details our progress against the measurement framework
that we introduced in our 2014 Child Poverty Annual Report. I am
clear that any new annual reporting arrangements that we bring
forward in the Bill should build on this robust and innovative
framework. In the meantime, I am absolutely clear that we need to
maintain a strong evidence base, and I think that this report
provides us with a clear picture of child poverty in Scotland in
2016 - a picture that will be the starting point for discussions on
the Bill going forward.

Angela Constance Cabinet Secretary for Communities,
Social Security and Equalities